Giant Bee Swarm Overtakes Foreclosure

By Ben PopkenMarch 19, 2009

A shit-ton of bees have infested this foreclosed home in Florida, creating a hive the size of a small child on the exterior, and chasing and harassing the neighbor’s daughter. See, that’s them in this picture. According to the article, bees and raccoons are infesting foreclosures across Florida. Nobody can find the owners or banks that are supposed to own and take care care of them.

EXACTLY! Every time I read one of these articles about abandoned foreclosed property, I think the same thing. Seize the house/property and auction it off to the first owner occupant buyer. Do not allow “investor purchases” (or do allow them and have a constant revolving income stream from selling the same house 10 times.) – It is all profit for the municipality (and if a person lives in it, better taken care of). Maybe the cost of housing will “correct” and working families will be able to afford one again.

Honey bees don’t just attach hives randomly to the outside of structures where they would be exposed to the elements and wandering bears. More likely this is a swarm just resting before they continue on to find a permanent home.

Whenever we have stories about foreclosures, there is always a line about the difficulty involved in finding the actual owners. Does this mean that there are going to be serious issues with titles in the next few years? Are we going to start hearing about people buying foreclosures suddenly having to give them back when it is discovered that they accidentally bought the property from someone who wasn’t the owner? The title insurance people are going to have a fun time….

But seriously, if you are that worried, just go down to the local hardware store, buy some poison, wait until nightfall, and spray the crap out of the place. Probably cost you maybe $30, and your daughter will be safe.

@rockasocky: I managed relatively non-violent wasp abatement. I squirted the nest with water (just from a plant sprayer–it was a small nest) from a safe position, and when the wasps cleared out, cursing, to wait for it to dry, I’d knock bits of it off (it wasn’t easily reachable anyway). After a few times, they decided the neighborhood sucked and moved on.

@F-15SBD_GitEmSteveDave: People who are afraid of bees with no reason need to be poisoned too. The only reason the damn bee is interested in you in the first place because the minute it goes anywhere near them, they start flailing about and screaming. Oh and running. I’m sure the bee was “chasing” you… SURE.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: I admit since I lived on a farm, seeing things fly near me has lessened my over-reaction. I can spot/feel a tick on me w/o freaking out. As for fliers, we have those damn Carpenter Bees and Cicada Killer wasps, both of which are NASTY, so I tend to try to duck them instead of flail at them.

@F-15SBD_GitEmSteveDave: Heh. I just have never been afraid of Bees. I laugh at the stupid girls who scream and run whenever htey see some flying thing. You know what, its flying at you because you’re screaming stupid girl!

Anyway, I’ve always not really minded bees. I rescued one out of a drinking fountain drain wiht my bare hands once. It was really cool. I let its wings dry out and then it flew away with no trouble at all.

Everyone around me was FREAKING THE FUCK OUT because I was holding a bee. If I had been freaking out, it probably woudlv’e stung me.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: Thankfully you’re not allergic and swell up like the Michelin Man when stung. I enjoy pretty flowers as much as the next heterosexual man, but I’d be lying if I didn’t occasionally fantasize about flame throwers and beehives becoming intimately acquainted.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: Well, on 8/20/06 My dad and Brother went up to work on the roof. My brother hit the roof 1 time with a hammer and they were swarmed. My brother was KILLED by the bees. So you can be tough if you want to, but it does not take much to set them off so a fear of them can save your life.
You have no idea what it is like to find someone you love, dead and covered head to toes in bees.

When I moved into my new home in Southern California it took us two months and three visits from Terminix to remove the bees. They found a crack in the outside wall and set up shop. Even after having the place tented we still had problems with the bees.

Looks like they’re swarming. (Hanging out while scout bees look for a good spot to build a new hive.) European honey bees are very docile when they swarm. They’re full of honey from the old hive & don’t have a home to defend–only the queen.

(Of course, if they’re Africanized, all bets are off.)

If I lived in St. Lucie I’d be bottling up some sugar water & racing on over there. Free bees!!!

@Jeangenie: I doubt it. In the story, the gentleman said they chased his daughter and her friend. If they were Africanized, they would have been in the hospital, as IIRC, they will chase for something like 100 yards.

For once, I’m going to ask a serious question. Don’t these communities with foreclosures have enforceable laws that require the owners to keep them up. It seems these houses go into foreclosure and then they just decay for a year at which point they’re garbage. If a community requires upkeep and the owner (individual, bank, speculator) ignores the upkeep, then the community should be able to fine the bejesus out of the owner or take possession. An ignored house that’s 3 months old is still salvageable. After a year, it’s pretty worthless.

Anyone figured out what is preventing some people from replying to posts? I use firefox or IE, and when I click a reply “loop arrow”, it merely takes me to the top of the page…only on Consumerist. Any other website works fine.

I used to live down there. If the city wasn’t so concerned about chasing out the blacks, Hispanics, other unwantables, etc.. thinking they will lure in high tax-paying white folks maybe someone would be living there and taking care of it. Instead of helping the poor they ignore the fact that people just aren’t moving to Florida now.

That precisely happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Now the foreclosures are everywhere here in South Florida, We went to a foreclosured home, and when I noticed most of the windows of the second floors had TONS of dead bees at the windows, as I approach the balcony, I see outside under the roof a massive beehive and it seemed like it was inside the wall. I had a friend of mine that told me that is a bitch to remove those beehives if they go inside the walls.

The problem is probably that the bees are africanized. Florida has a BIG problem with africans. The bees, not the people, maybe the people too, who am I to speak, but definitly the bees, although i’m sure they’d rather a bunch of african people moved into the neighborhood. Me, I’ve got an irrational fear of bees and of africans, this is like my worst nightmare.

That’s weird. My parents are fixing up a foreclosed house and my mom says there are hundreds of bees living in the trees there. It’s so loud that you can hear a hum when you are inside with the windows open.

Abandoned houses whose owners can’t be found should be posted in the local newspaper. If no one makes legal claim to the house within 30-60 days, the house should be bulldozed, and the land seized by the city.

That would reduce the inventory of unsold homes, and will help housing values in the area by removing blight.

I doubt the bees are “killer” bees. Killer bees will fuck you up for like a mile before leaving you alone. We learned all about it as kids in Arizona.
I was doing a project near the Arizona/California border and a swarm of killer bees attacked a guy on a wheelchair about half a mile from my location, killing him. Helicopters were everywhere and I didn’t know what was going on. Suddenly, I was being attacked by several bees as well. A car drove up fast and screeched to a halt, then yelled at me to get out of the area because the dude died.

I love how people think that is a “shit ton” of bees. That’s pretty typical for a swarm. When a hive gets too crowded, half the bees take the current queen and off they go in search of new digs. They land like that when they are looking for the new place to live. They cluster around the queen and keep her safe and warm. Scouts go out and bring back news of what they have found. At some point they make a consenus and off they go to their new home and move in. They can hang out in a cluster for minutes, hours or sometimes more than a day while they are searching. If they are regular European honey bees, they are at their most docile when they are swarming. You can walk right up and put your hand on them. But if they are indeed the Africanized ones, watch out. They are nasty, aggressive boogers spoiling for a fight. All you gotta do is be too close and they can send out a bunch to kick your ass. They don’t give up for up to a mile. Nasty.
I hate to read about people that call the exterminators rather than a Beekeeper to remove bees that have moved in. Never kill them if you don’t have to. Especially these days with them mysteriously dying off by the tens of millions. Yes, they are expensive to move, but worth it to our ecosystem in the long run.
And yes, I’m a Beekeeper, so I’m biased…..I have learned lots of respect for bees. They are cool little creatures.

I heard stories that during the peak of the boom in Florida there were many a sale voided because property flipped so fast that the paper work didn’t catch up . Sometimes in less than a month after a sale it would be sold one or two more time leaving the last buyer SOL .

I don’t buy all this crap with the it’s too complicated to follow the trail . I heard that’s how alot of people are getting an extension during a rocket docket – asking to see the actual paper work or proof of ownership .